Now, HERE, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!
-- The Red Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass

Friday, June 29, 2007

RevGals Friday Five: Talents and Gifts

1. Personality tests; love them or hate them?Love them. Particularly Meyers-Briggs. I’m an INFP, and that is exactly to the T the way I act. It was validating to find out that there was a class of other like me.

2. Would you describe yourself as practical, creative, intellectual or a mixture?I am a mix of creative and intellectual. But I’m not intellectual enough to want to be an academic and read long intricate books on philosophy and theory. I have a quick mind, but it gets impatient. That’s why I never managed to read Lacan or Derrida, or even Plato and Kant. Give me the basic concepts stripped of all the wordiness and I’ll run with it.

3. It is said that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame; have you had yours yet? If so what was it, if not dream away what would you like it to be?I have never sought it and, happily, it has never come unbidden. Being the focus of attention makes me anxious, so I can’t imagine wanting even 15 minutes.

4. If you were given a 2 year sabbatical (oh the dream of it) to create something would it be music, literature, art.....something completely different...share your dream with us...I would go to school and take classes in Victorian and Modern literature, art history, and poetry. Maybe some history from those time periods. And then I would write poetry. And I would take up sewing and knitting, so that ideas could percolate while I’m creating something else.

5. Describe a talent you would like to develop, but that seems completely beyond you.I would like to be organized. I try. And then it slips away from me. Consistency is extremely difficult. So instead I am overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of, say, going through the pile-up of mail and papers. And, yes, I’ve tried breaking it up into small goals (It will be forgotten entirely after a few sessions, because something will come up that has priority. That’s what happened to The Great Photo Sorting Project), setting timers, blah blah blah. I try to throw out junk the minute it comes in, but I’m always astonished at how much stuff that isn’t junk there is to be filed or dealt with. And, if it requires action, I can’t file it; when it’s filed it’s dead because I no longer see it. I even have a planner, which I frequently forget about, even though I lug the thing around with me all the time. Add to this that Dear Husband hates every idea I come up with for rectifying the situation, and I’m stymied.

I have this idea that if I were organized, I would be one of those Moms Who Do Lots of Things and Aren’t Slackers.